Once you have arranged flights and Car Hire either by booking a Fly/Drive or by booking separately you will need somewhere to rest your head at night.

There is an abundance of accommodation in Florida and we will try to point you in the right direction. Personally, we are a bit biased toward vacation home rental. We have our own vacation villa in Orlando and it is our pride and joy. The main reason we bought one was because of the time we spent there it made sense. Some trips were between 8 and 12 weeks long. That mounts up to quite a bit in hotel room bills. One year we rented a villa and that was it. We decided we liked it that much we bought one.

If you work it out even for a family of four to stay in hotel rooms with just the one room and bathroom, one TV, normally 2 queen size beds and not much privacy. No means of cooking and having to find an empty washing machine and lots of quarters when you need to do some washing. Quite often is no more expensive to stay in a villa. You can get 4 bedroom villas for around £450/$750 per week on average during the low season and up to around £600/S1000 per week during peak times. Bear in mind you would have to pay extra for pool heating during the months November to April and this would cost around £80/$160 per week. Gas and Electricity are more expensive in the US than in the UK. Where it really saves money is if there are two families travelling together as with most 4 bedroom villas they can accommodate up to 10 persons. Working on that assumption then it would cost, during the low season, only £45/$75 per week, per person. For that you have the privacy, freedom and comfort you need to fully enjoy your vacation. You can do a wash every night if you wish. Give the kids their favourite breakfast cereal. Have an ice cold beer whenever you want from your well stocked refrigerator. If you don’t fancy going out for a meal bring or send for a take away. Fancy a quiet day by your pool reading a book then you can. There are many areas with villa communities most have been built recently and are in excellent landscaped locations. See our links to vacation villas.

Having said all that some folks prefer hotels and being able to have room service and the company of others during their trip. There are hundreds if not thousands of hotels in and around Orlando ranging from budget to luxury. Budget hotels such as Days inns, Econolodge, Travelodge etc can be got for as little as $30-$40 per night. This figure varies so much as they have a weird and wonderful way of calculating walk-in rates and of course the season and location depends very much on the rate too.


Areas you can expect to pay more are anywhere very close to Walt Disney World and International Drive (IDrive). these areas are always in demand. You can try some of the online hotel bookers before you leave home and see what rate you can get or you can do what we used to do and go to an approved hotel room wholesaler. There are quite a few of them and they used to ring the hotel and get the agreed rate. You then paid 10% to them they give you a slip of paper and you hand this to the check -in clerk at the desk and pay the balance when you check out. Never pay the walk-in rate as this is their maximum rate for the season. An example we stayed in The Rosen Center on IDrive once for $60 a night this is a 4* hotel, their walk-in rate was $128. So you can save money if you shop around. Also if you a checking into hotels like this quite a few of them have suites too and if you are celebrating a birthday or an anniversary tell the check-in clerk and ask if there is any possibility of an upgrade and you may get a suite, we did! Don’t forget if you don’t ask you won’t get. Budget hotels generally are around $30 - $50 per night. Don’t forget there is tax to be added to all the advertised rates. IDrive is a nice area to stay in especially if you don’t have a car as you can walk to many shops and restaurants. The is also a trolly bus that runs the length of IDrive called the IRide. You pay one set fee and get off where you want.

Staying in Disney or Disney partner hotels is a lot more money as you would expect. Sometimes though it is worth experiencing the Disney Magic and staying at one of their properties. The lower end of the price range are the Disney All Star resorts and Pop Century resorts. The top of the range include The Contemporary Resort, The Polynesian Resort and of course The Grand Floridian Resort these are all situated around the Seven Seas Lagoon in front the Magic Kingdom. With most Disney hotel prices they include entry to the parks using your door key card this is also a charge card and if you wish you can have all your purchases delivered to your room free of charge from any Disney shop.

Hwy 192
This is the stretch of road that runs past Disney and down to Hwy 27 where a lot of Villa communities are. On the 192 are many many shops hotels/motels and restaurants. This area is a bit cluttered now after many years of growth. Some of the motels are looking a bit tired and offer cheap and basic accommodation. Many of the chain hotels can be found on this stretch of road.